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Autumn Season 2015 is here, and with it comes a new tank hero, limited-time seasonal content, free hero unlocks, teams, guilds, Autumn eSports and much-anticipated balance changes. Seasonal play is the start of the next big phase in Vainglory’s evolution, and we can’t wait to introduce you to everything we’ve been working on night and day to improve and deepen your play experience. Read on to find out what’s in store for you in update 1.9 …

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Boy this is a HUGE update, so I've added a Table of Contents for your convenience!

1. New Hero - PHINN! 1.1 Background & Lore 1.2 Abilities 2. Autumn 2015 Season Begins! 2.1 Seasonal Map Skin 2.2 Limited-Edition Seasonal Skins 2.3 Autumn 2015 Trophy & End of Preseason 2.4 Skill Tier Changes 2.5 Benefits of Seasonal Play & Skill Tier Compression 2.6 Autumn Esports Schedule Announced 2.7 Autumn Hero Unlocks 3. Guilds 3.1 Guild Basics 3.2 Guild Roles 4. Teams 4.1 Team Basics 5. New Hero Skins

PHINN BACKGROUND & LORE

Phinn is an unstoppable tank who brings the fight to him. He pairs incredibly well with other heroes who don’t back down from battle. Phinn is strongest with defense and utility items, and he’s able to absorb immense amounts of punishment, protecting teammates while they dish out damage.

Read Phinn’s lore:

• Princess Malene Kidnapped!
• Social Climbers

PHINN EARLY-ACCESS PERIOD

Phinn will be unlockable with ICE only for the first 7 days. Afterward, you will be able to unlock Phinn with ICE or Glory.

Unstoppable Slot: Heroic Perk Phinn cannot be stopped or stunned. All movement-impairing effects are instead reduced to moderate slows, and stuns are converted to silences. He even shrugs off attempts on his life, passively gaining 18% additional armor, shield and max health from items and effects.

Quibble Slot: A Phinn slams his anchor down on the targeted location, heavily slowing enemies for 1.1s. Overdrive: At max rank, the slow becomes a stun! Deals reduced damage to minions.

Polite Company Slot: B Phinn stomps the earth, damaging all enemies in a wide area and nudging them toward him. The effect reverberates around allies, temporarily granting them fortified health. Fortified health increases by 5% of Phinn's bonus health and 18% of Phinn's bonus armor/shield.

Forced Accord Slot: C Phinn throws his anchor in a direction. After the anchor reaches its destination, Phinn yanks it back, damaging all enemies in its path and pulling them back to him.

Seasons in Vainglory matter. Whether it’s grinding for a Ranked Autumn trophy, training to qualify for an Autumn tournament, rallying your guild toward a seasonal reward or grabbing limited-time content, all Vainglory activities — in-game and out — will turn over with the seasons. Here’s what we’re introducing first, but know we have a lot more tricks up our sleeves …

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SEASONAL MAP SKIN!

“To celebrate the introduction of seasonal play, we’re including a ton of limited-time content. The most immediately noticeable of these will be the seasonal Halcyon Fold map skin. Play Vainglory with haunting ambiance, and enjoy all the changes — big and small — as well as a few easter eggs here and there.” —PlayoffBeard

• Play on a seasonal version of the Halcyon Fold, complete with carved pumpkins, gravestones, altered Minion Mines and more.
  
  
• Be sure to toggle on “pinch to zoom” in Settings so you can explore all the map’s secrets!

LIMITED-EDITION SEASONAL SKINS

“Imagine playing Vainglory a year from now (probably while riding a hoverboard and tapping with a stylus, but let’s put that aside for now). You enter the Halcyon Fold and bust out that Autumn 2015 Pumpkin Spice Petal. Players all around you are throwing out triple-smiley pings and your chat explodes after the game. They all want to know where you got that and how they can get it too. And all you can say is ‘sorry, that skin’s long gone.’ Welcome to the world of limited-time, seasonal content. Get them before they’re gone, enjoy incredible model and effects changes and be the envy of many.” —PlayoffBeard


‘BAEWITCHED’ CELESTE

For months and months, players have been pleading for a Celeste skin, chanting ‘she is bae!‘ in chat. The wait is over with an amazing limited-edition skin. Ride a broom, drop cauldrons from the sky and trigger a supernova to watch them bubble and explode! But we won’t stop there. Celeste will also have a full three-tiered skin coming in a future update. —PlayoffBeard

• Unlock the limited-edition Baewitched Celeste in the Market in update 1.9 only. This special skin will be removed from the Market around Halloween and afterward there will be no way to get it!
  
  
• Once unlocked, the skin is yours to keep — even after it leaves the Market.
  
  
• Limited-edition seasonal skins do not have tiers or cards and must be unlocked with ICE before they’re gone.

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‘PUMPKIN SPICE’ PETAL

A flesh-eating fruit with watchful eyes for a throne. Tombstone seeds. Skull munions. And that pumpkin head with candlelit eyes! Pumpkin Spice Petal is truly one-of-a-kind, and it’s only available during 1.9. With this skin and the new Petal ability rework, you’ll be that much scarier when invading enemy-side jungle. —PlayoffBeard

• Unlock the limited-edition Pumpkin Spice Petal in the Market in update 1.9 only. This special skin will be removed from the Market around Halloween and afterward there will be no way to get it!
  
  
• Once unlocked, the skin is yours to keep — even after it leaves the Market.
  
  
• Limited-edition seasonal skins do not have tiers or cards and must be unlocked with ICE before they’re gone.

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AUTUMN 2015 TROPHY & END OF THE PRESEASON

Autumn 2015 is our first season, which will last from now until early January. All players have three months to earn the highest possible skill tier and other achievements to fill their Autumn 2015 trophy room. At the end of the season, the Autumn trophy will be added to your Vainglory profile. But play without fear! The best skill tier you achieve in 1.9 will be immortalized; it doesn’t matter if you drop down during the season.

Below is everything you need to know about these seasonal changes:

SKILL TIER CHANGES

• Your Season 0 (preseason) skill tier trophy has been immortalized in your Trophy Room. Congratulations! That can never be taken away from you.
  
  
• Your existing skill tier has been archived. Your starting skill tier for Autumn will be different than where you ended the preseason based on a “compression” of tiers, giving you room to rank up during Autumn 2015.
  
  
• Play Ranked matches now to earn your Autumn trophy and prepare for future rewards.

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BENEFITS OF SEASONAL PLAY & SKILL TIER ‘COMPRESSION’

• The compression clears out a lot of noise in the system from players who ranked up when the meta was very different or when Skaarf was OP burning down whole villages, etc.
  
  
• If you felt “stuck” before, you’ll have an even playing field and ample room to climb — eventually ideally climbing above your best Season 0 rank.
  
  
• Update 1.9 introduces teams and guilds, and getting a fresh start every season will be essential to earning special rewards and accolades — or even for qualifying for big Vainglory events and tournaments.
  
  
• Examples: If your team forms late in the year, it can still earn a top rank and tournament qualification for that particular Vainglory season. If this were a yearly structure, a team starting out late could never catch teams that were there from Day One. The same logic holds on the guild side, where any guild — no matter when it forms — will be able to achieve seasonal goals and rewards as more and more are introduced. In school and have more time to play during the summer? Discover a great Vainglory crew in winter? Seasons ensures all players and teams can have their moment of fame and glory, no matter what point in the year they band together. —PlayoffBeard

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AUTUMN ESPORTS SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

Mark your calendars for Autumn Vainglory eSports! Read all the details here and look out for announcements throughout the seasons.

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AUTUMN HERO UNLOCKS

As an extra seasonal gift, we’re giving all iOS players a free Celeste unlock and all new Android players a free Taka unlock during October! To get your free unlock(s), all you have to do is log in and play sometime in October. We’ll take care of the rest. From there, pick up a Baewitched Celeste or a Shiro Kage Taka skin and you’ll be looking good with your new, top-tier hero!

GUILDS

“Vainglory is more fun and more rewarding when you play with friends. You can relive epic matches, plan hero comps, discuss strategies and best of all, no AFKs! But not everyone has a go-to group of players they can rely on. That’s why we’re introducing guilds. These are fun, social destinations in-game filled with likeminded players. Together, you’ll play and push for seasonal rewards based entirely on dedication and participation. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re Vainglorious or just learning; anyone can contribute to the guild in meaningful ways, and no type of player will hold you back. In fact, the more the merrier, as the more active players you have, the more likely you’ll be able to hit special guild-only seasonal goals and rewards. Your guild will also have a unique name and guild tag displayed in-game when you play with guildmates.

“You can informally give your guild any focus you like, whether that’s based on locality, skill tier or interests — and you can explicitly set your guild to an open-door policy where everyone is welcome or invite-only to ensure the guild retains your priorities. It costs a small amount of ICE or Glory to create a guild to guarantee they are legitimate and run by dedicated players. In the beginning, guilds can include up to 20 members. By being active, guilds can unlock the ability to add up to 50 members.

“Lastly, we’re soon introducing a real-world Vainglory Community Meets program. You can organize a gathering of your guild and get special support from us for streaming, swag and more!” —PlayoffBeard

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GUILD BASICS

• Create or join one guild, which contains up to 20 players (can expand to 50 players). All members must be in the same server region.
  
  
• Guilds will have special rewards based on dedication and participation.
  
  
• Earn Guild Fame, which will unlock the ability to add more guild members and do much more over time.
  
  
• Each guild has its own in-game overview with art, statistics and other information.
  
  
• Each guild has its own dedicated text chat channel that appears above common friends.
  
  
• Your Friends and Party lists will prioritize guildmates. Note: You do not need to be in-game friends with a guildmate to see them on your list.
  
  
• This is just the beginning for in-game guilds. We will build on this 1.9 foundation and add much more awesome for guilds to rally around in the future.

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GUILD ROLES

• Leader: Granted to the player that created the guild and recognized by a crown next to the leader’s name. There can only be one. This role is transferred to the longest-serving member if the leader leaves the guild.
  
  
• Veteran: Granted to players who are very active and dedicated to the guild. Players obtain the Veteran status after 30 Guild games. Veterans may invite other players to the guild in invite-only guilds.
  
  
• Member: Standard rank for all other members. Players obtain member status after 10-30 guild games.
  
  
• Initiate: The rank new members get when joining the guild. Players keep this rank as long as they have played fewer than 10 guild games.

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TEAMS

“The Vainglory competitive scene has advanced far faster than we ever anticipated. From massive March Madness-style 128-team VGL tournaments to the Vainglory International Premier League (VIPL) live in Seoul on Korean TV to big-name organizations forming pro Vainglory teams, this is getting very real, very fast. To support the rapid expansion of Vainglory eSports and give every Vainglory player — regardless of skill tier — a taste of the fame and glory, we’re formalizing teams within the game.
“These teams of up to six players can push for competition-based and win-based rewards no matter what their skill level. That said, the new team skill tier will be used to qualify teams from in-game to actual big tournaments with sizable prize pools, and your team ranking will also help determine your seeding within those tournaments. So, playing and training as a formal team will be essential, whether you’re the world champion GankStars Sirius or a brand-new team with a faint dream of playing under the bright lights.

“Just like guilds, forming a team will require ICE or Glory to prevent spam team creation and make sure players are ready to throw down in Ranked. We’ve deliberately set the team max at six players to ensure that you can run 3v3 scrims within your team. And while you might also independently belong to a guild, being a member of a team means you’re aiming to be the best you can and are playing to win. So, pick teammates wisely, play to unlock win-based rewards and make a name for yourself in the Fold.” —PlayoffBeard

TEAM BASICS

• Create or join one team, which contains up to six players. All team members must be in the same server region.
  
  
• Teams will have special rewards based on competition & wins — and your team skill tier will qualify teams for major tournaments and help determine their seeding.
  
  
• Each team has its own dedicated text chat channel that appears above common friends for easier communication and strategizing.
  
  
• Each team has its own in-game overview with art, statistics and other information.
  
  
• Your Friends and Party lists will prioritize teammates. Note: You do not need to be in-game friends with a teammate to see them on your list.
  
  
• This update lays the early foundation for in-game teams, but our competitive vision is too expansive to fit in a single update. It all starts here, but if you have a well-established team in future updates, you will be well rewarded with opportunity and prestige.

“While the limited-edition seasonal skins might steal the 1.9 show, there are more incredible three-tier skins hitting the Fold. Collect cards for Taka Tier II and the long-awaited, much-teased Krul Tier II!” —PlayoffBeard

Three-tier hero skins new in 1.9:

• Shiro Kage Taka Tier II
• Death Metal Krul Tier II

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Be sure to let us know what you think about this update! There's sooo many changes, share your thoughts with us!

This post just includes the non-balance updates. Read the balance updates in the full update notes.